Feast of the Most Holy
Trinity
This wonderful feast of the
Trinity reminds you and me that we as Christians, along with our Jewish
brethren, as well as the people of the Islam, we have something in common. We all believe, Judaism, Christianity and
Islam that at a moment in time, in history, roughly 5000 years ago God appeared
to a man named Abraham and said, “I want to be your God and I want your people
to be My people.” And that was a
breakthrough because it was the beginning of what we call monotheism. Mono from the Greek word one, a belief in one
God. Other cultures of the people at
that time believed in polytheism. They
worshiped the sun, fire, the moon, animals, creatures, whatever it might have
been. But here at this moment in time,
5000 years ago the God that you and I worship, the God revealed to us by Jesus
as Father, Son and Spirit said, “I want to be your God, and I will take care of
you and I will protect you. Worship only
Me.” Judaism for 3000 years, Christianity
evolves out of Jerusalem in a moment in time in history 2000 years ago when God
sent His Son Jesus to be our redeemer.
Islam roughly 613-616 AD, seventh century. All three of these religions believe in one
God. But you and I as Christians, as
revealed to us by Jesus worship God as Father, as Son and Holy Spirit.
Now maybe to really try to
understand that because at that first reading, Deuteronomy said it so very
clearly. There isn’t any other God who’s
done for you what I have done and still do.
Jesus said it in the gospel, “Baptize in the name of the Father, the Son
and the Holy Spirit. Go out to the whole
world and preach the good news. And I am
with you until the end of time.” So this
God is with you and me forever. And as
Paul said in the second reading so very clearly. He called us sons, adopted children of
God. Now ladies, don’t get upset because
he didn’t say sons and daughters because Paul was talking to the Romans and he
was trying to tell them, and in the Roman understanding of culture only the
sons could inherit, so Paul was trying to say we’re all equal in the eyes of
God, men and women, boys and girls, all of us are adopted sons and daughters of
God. We’re heirs with Christ to the family
of God. So you and I belong to a great
heritage, a great tradition. Not only
our own families but we have the family of God.
Now how do you explain the
Trinity? What I would like to do, I need
a little help. I want about twelve
people to come up and help me illustrate this, maybe some of the children. Do I have twelve children who would like to
help? You don’t have to say
anything. Mom’s volunteering them. Okay there’s a couple coming. I’ve got two, we’ve got a start. Three, four, five. Come on up.
Right here. Just about twelve of
you. Okay. Wonderful.
Come on, need a couple more.
Logan, Spencer? No. Oh come on.
Alright. We’ve got enough right
now. Okay. Sure come on up.
Okay, which one of you girls
want to be God? Okay, ha, ha. Alright.
Now God is both male and female because God is actually beyond
gender. God is the creator. Got put everything into motion. So you know God you are so full of love and
your love went out and created the whole world and all the people, all the
animals, everything in it because that’s the way you are God. You’re just so full of love. So it’s beautiful. So God is creator and nourisher. So, children as you look up this way. You know God when you created everything
reflects your love. That’s what it does. It’s like standing in front of a mirror, what
do you see? You see your own image
coming back, right? Okay, so that’s what
creation is all about. Everything is
reflecting your love, your beauty, your goodness. Go back to the book of Genesis, God looked at
everything God made and He found it very, very good.
But now something
happened. I’m going to have you turn
around and face that way. Sin came into
the world and we turned our backs on God.
So turn around and face so that your back is to God, alright. You turn around, turn around, turn
around. That’s what sin is. We turn our backs on God. We get involved in our gossiping, our anger,
our hatred, our killing, our selfishness.
We steal. We do all the things
that separate us, that block our vision of God’s love for us. We’re trapped in a sense inside of our own
self. We don’t see, we don’t reflect
God’s love and goodness.
But God, you’re pretty
smart. What did you do? Do you remember something. You forgave them. How did you forgive them? Whom did You send? You sent Jesus. Okay, you’re going to be Jesus, alright? Now Jesus what I want you to do is go to
everyone and turn them around, okay? So
that they are looking back up at God.
That’s redemption folks. Now turn
around. Alright. You gotta cooperate otherwise I’ll send you
back to your pew okay? Turn around,
okay. And you get to turn around,
okay. A few more to go Jesus. Alright.
Okay. Be gentle now, be
gentle. You did it with great love and
tenderness Jesus, that’s what love is about.
Ha, Ha. So that’s
redemption. Jesus comes, He’s truly God,
He’s truly human. And he turns us around
and brings us back into the embrace, the vision of God’s love. That’s the beautiful gift of redemption. We’re part of God’s family now through
Jesus. Not just our own human family but
the family of God.
But you know some things
still happen don’t they? Michelle come
and take a walk with me. But you know
what happens sometimes, we still wander away don’t we? We still don’t want to do what God asks us to
do and Jesus to do, so we still get caught up in our own sinfulness and our
faults and our failings. So you stay
right there okay? Now God, Jesus, people
of God one of our members is out there lost, what are we going to do? Go get her.
We’re going to join hands, okay.
Join hands. I’ll take your hand,
take it out of your pocket. Let’s form a
line, form a chain okay? Alright, let’s
go. Link okay everybody. God you get in there too, Jesus. Come down one step. Oh, we did it. Hard to do.
Okay, Michelle, alright. This is
the Spirit of God. This is the
community, the church. As Jesus said,
“I’m with you always.” I give you My
Spirit of hope, of peace, of joy, of forgiveness, of mercy, understanding,
compassion, love, courage, gentleness, whatever it might be. The fruits of the Spirit are the presence of
the Lord in the world today. So now we
are going to pull together, come back all the way up here and we are going to form
a circle. Come around, we can do it, we
can do it. Alright.
Again this is the church,
the body of Christ. You and I are the
Spirit of the Lord. Wherever you and go
this day, everyday of our lives, through our baptism into the Lord Jesus. We are baptized not just in the name of Jesus
but into Jesus Christ, into the family of God.
We all are children of God. We
all are equal in the eyes of God. That’s
why we are here this morning. And we can
hold our hands together, we can pray with each other and then go forth from
this Eucharist to bring the love of Jesus.
No one every has to do it alone or by themselves. You and I have our parish community, we’ve
got the presence of each other, we’ve got the love of God, surrounds us each
and every moment. So we have God who is
mother/father, we have Jesus who redeems us and we have the Spirit that holds
us together. That’s the Trinity. Relationships, community, the people of
God. Thank you for helping me.
See that’s the beauty of the
church. We’re all different ages, all
different cultures and faces and backgrounds, but that’s the presence of the
Spirit moving through all of us. And
that’s what we are doing again this morning at this Eucharist, coming, putting
ourselves on the altar, becoming the Lord Jesus whom we receive in Holy Communion
and going back through those doors to wherever our lives take us and be the
presence, the spirit of the Lord wherever our journeys take us.
So celebrate the feast of
the Trinity today. Every time you put
your hand into a little holy water font, you make the sign of the cross. You say your grace before and after meals,
your morning prayer, your evening prayer, you get in the car before you start a
journey, you make the sign of the cross stating your belief in the presence of
the Trinity. What a great gift you and I
have been given by a very caring and loving God. Maybe just by that simple little
illustration. I think the simplicity of
it and the beauty of it. Don’t get worried
about the theology of it. I studied for
four years in theology class, got an A in the class, I can’t tell you now what
I did or said but I could memorize very well.
But it isn’t the head, it’s the heart, it’s the experience of God’s love
of the family of God that we just saw here this morning, that you and I
experience every day.
So celebrate the feast of the
Trinity. Sometime in the course of the
day take out a little quiet moment and just make the sign of the cross with
great reverence and a great sense of thank you God, father/mother, Son and Holy
Spirit.